Process for curing of adhesives for flocking and texturing on heat-sensitive substrates, by electron-beam radiation

Claim 1

A process for curing the adhesive used to hold flock fiber texturing material and the like to a heat-sensitive substrate selected from the group consisting of temperature-sensitive plastics, natural fibers, wood, paper and paper-foil laminates that inherently limits the degree of thermal curing that may be employed and consequently the speed of curing, that comprises, applying an electron-curable adhesive layer of a thickness of the order of a few mils to a heatsensitive substrate, attaching a layer of said texturing material to the adhesive layer with the fibers substantially perpendicular to the layer and with the texturing material layer being of a thickness two to fifty times that of the adhesive layer, passing the assembly of substrate and adhesively secured material transversely past a predetermined elongated region extending over the coextensive width of the substrate, the adhesive layer, and the texturing material, directing unscanned electron curtain beam energy at said predetermined region upon the material at said region simultaneously throughout said region in a direction substantially parallel to the fibers throughout said region, and through the material and upon the adhesive layer substantially perpendicularly thereto throughout said region, adjusting the electron beam to produce an electron dose of the order of 2 megarads ±50% delivered to said adhesive layer throughout said region, of energy of the order of 150 keV ±30% throughout said region, and with a line speed of passing the predetermined region of the order of about 20-80 meters per minute, in order to cure the adhesive without affecting the heat-sensitive substrate.